Foundation repair

[pmbug]

Front of my house has sunk about an inch since original construction. There's a fault line running through the foundation in the middle of the house. Back half of the house is still level. It's the price one pays for having large Oak trees during a couple decades of summer droughts.

I called three different foundation repair companies. First two use pressed pilings system and I'm not a fan. Last one casts bell bottom piers with rebar. It's a bit more labor intensive than the pressed pilings, but should yield a superior end result. It's gonna cost me about 4 ozt of gold. *sigh*

 

[searcher]

Basement or slab?

A bit outta my league but gonna be interesting to follow along.

 

[pmbug]

There are no basements on the Gulf Coast. We have "gumbo" clay loam soil and a shallow water table. Foundations around here are predominantly post tension slabs.

 

[Voodoo]

Clay and water are hell on foundations.

 

[Joe King]

There's a fault line running through the foundation in the middle of the house.

Is it a slip strike fault? Or more of a subduction zone?

There are no basements on the Gulf Coast

Pretty much so in all of Texas, ain't it?

I know of no one with a basement around where I live, but apparently it is possible to have a basement here, but what it actually takes to build a home with one, is cost prohibitive.

A lot more of that clay has to be removed from around the home's footprint and replaced with stuff that doesn't shrink and expand like clay does.
.....and we don't really have the problem with the water table here like you do down there.
Edited to add: it's getting so dry here that I doubt there even is water table right now.



A few years ago I went up North on vacation and took a friend with me.

She was blown away due to every house we were in having a basement.

She was like, "it's like having a whole 'nother house under your house!". Lol

I was like, yea more space to fill up with more shit. Lol

 

[pmbug]

Is it a slip strike fault? Or more of a subduction zone?

There is a crack in the foundation visible on the outside of the house. The crack is just under the vertical expansion joint in the exterior brick wall which has opened up about 0.25". Inside the house, there are cracks in the 18" porcelain floor tiles running the width of the house in line with the exterior crack. The floor by the front wall of the house is about 2" lower than the back half of the house per all three foundation repair companies that came out to measure and offer quotes.

 

[Joe King]

There is a crack in the foundation visible on the outside of the house. The crack is just under the vertical expansion joint in the exterior brick wall which has opened up about 0.25". Inside the house, there are cracks in the 18" porcelain floor tiles running the width of the house in line with the exterior crack. The floor by the front wall of the house is about 2" lower than the back half of the house per all three foundation repair companies that came out to measure and offer quotes.

Ok, so more of a divergent boundary (rift) type of fault huh?


What you describe is what at least a third of all the houses I've ever been inside of in Texas, is like. Lol

There's one neighborhood here in a town I've never lived in, but through some weird twist of fate I've happened to know several people who lived in various homes there, and every single one of them had exactly what you are describing.

 

[pmbug]

It's very common - especially if you have large Oak trees in the yard.

 

[Joe King]

It's very common - especially if you have large Oak trees in the yard.

The neighborhood I referred to is full of big Live Oaks.

 

[chieftain]

Front of my house has sunk about an inch since original construction. There's a fault line running through the foundation in the middle of the house. Back half of the house is still level. It's the price one pays for having large Oak trees during a couple decades of summer droughts.

I called three different foundation repair companies. First two use pressed pilings system and I'm not a fan. Last one casts bell bottom piers with rebar. It's a bit more labor intensive than the pressed pilings, but should yield a superior end result. It's gonna cost me about 4 ozt of gold. *sigh*

US$17K is cheap for that sort of remediation work. It would be closer to $US$70K here such is the state of the trades.

 

[nickndfl]

Hopefully it turns out better than new.

 

[Goldhedge]

So because of the drouth your foundation is sinking? Did I get that right? Expansive (bentonite) clay expands with moisture and sinks without.

I've seen basement floors that moved 4 inches up and over from expansive soils which are prevalent in the foothills of the Rockies. Expensive homes no less!

It would seem piers to bedrock (if there is bedrock) would solve that problem, but what do I know?

 

[pmbug]

Drought causes the soil to contract (and crack). Soil will separate from the foundation by an inch or more if you don't water sufficiently.

Large oak trees exacerbate the problem as their root systems grow far beyond the canopy's size.

 

[Viking]

There are no basements on the Gulf Coast. We have "gumbo" clay loam soil and a shallow water table. Foundations around here are predominantly post tension slabs.

You built on dinosaur graveyards.